


Time's Warm Embrace

by wingsofthenight



Category: Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Genre: Depression, F/M, Ishtar lives AU, Referenced Past Emotional Abuse, Slow Burn, let's just say ishtar isn't in a good place right after the war, vague mentions of suicidal intentions in chapter one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-11 01:10:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12311673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingsofthenight/pseuds/wingsofthenight
Summary: "What kind of future do I have?"Ishtar survives the war. Unable to rule Freege, she ends up taking Sety up on his offer to go to Silesia. Maybe there she can figure out what to do for her future.





	Time's Warm Embrace

**Author's Note:**

> After months of saying this would happen to friends it finally happened...
> 
> Anyway, the first chapter of Time's Warm Embrace, an AU of the game where Ishtar survives, is now out, as you can see. The first few chapters will definitely involve Ishtar not being in the best state of mind, for reasons that will become pretty clear as we go on. The pairing also won't really come to the foreground for awhile, neither of them are really ready for anything to happen, and hopefully I am able to write it so it comes across as natural. One day I'll write how they met. That day will be awhile off sadly because that will turn out way longer than I meant...
> 
> If you're curious, the title comes from a line in "Heritors of Arcadia" from Echoes.  
> "The seasons they turn, winter to spring,  
> Dulling the pain and erasing the sting  
> The season turn, summer to fall,  
> Time's warm embrace begins to heal all"
> 
> Honestly I kind of think the whole song can be applied to Jugdral after the war. I know it was written for Echoes and works great there too, but good songs can be applicable to many different situations in my opinion.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story ^^

_Ishtar did not want to fight them._

_What other choice did she have though? To stay and be the Queen of the monster that had taken over the boy she had loved? To ensure his reign would carry on for centuries?_

_Tinny was crying, begging her to change her mind. She couldn’t bring herself to look at her. She wanted to surrender, but she couldn’t bring his wrath down on them. They’d try to protect her when he came for her. She wouldn’t let them die because of her._

_At least she was the only one here. Sety had tried to talk her down, but had rushed off, most likely to help the rest of the army against the pegasus sisters. Another thing to regret, but where could they go? They were the daughters of a traitor, she couldn’t send them to Silesia. No one else would take them._

_She aimed randomly at her opponents, hoping to do no damage but to provoke them into defeating her. She closed her eyes as she gathered the power of the Mjölnir tome in her hands and prepared to cast it before it suddenly dissipated. Or maybe that wasn’t the right word for it. One moment it was there, and the next it was gone. She opened her eyes, panicking, to see Sety standing there holding a staff._

_Before she could do anything- or rather decide what to do- she saw him move his hand and she felt the wind lull her into unconsciousness._

* * *

 

Ishtar woke up hours later. Still slightly delirious, she panicked, frantically searching for her tome, before what had happened in the battle caught up to her. Which didn’t help that much; she was still panicking before forcing herself to take several deep breaths and to actually take stock of her situation.

She wasn’t in Barhara castle, that she could tell for sure. That was already starting to slightly calm her down, because to her that was the worst of all her fates. From what she could tell, she was in one of the guest rooms of Freege Castle. That… was both reassuring and not. She wasn’t in her room, but that could also have been because the Liberation Army wasn’t sure which one was hers. Then again, Tinny would know- but she wouldn’t…

She forced her thoughts away from that subject. Thinking about that wasn’t something she ever wished to do. Then again, no train of thought was in any way pleasing...

She flinched when the door began to open and instinctively curled back in fear, all rationalizations she had previously made about who had put her here gone, expecting to see a boy with long red hair and black clothes slither in.

Thankfully, the person that came in had short green hair and white clothes and was also just quite a bit taller.

Sety seemed surprised to see her awake, but quickly noticed her pose and didn’t come any closer or close the door, something she was grateful for. She honestly didn’t know what she would do, and she did not want to find out.

Silence filled the room for several moments before Sety finally broke it by awkwardly saying, “I didn’t realize you would be awake so soon.”

The thunder sage didn’t say anything. She saw him hesitate for a second before continuing, “Tinny wanted to be here, but the last battle took a lot out of her and Arthur forced her to get some sleep. She said she was going to come by in the mor-“

“Why.”

The wind sage blinked, somewhat surprised at the interruption, but before he could continue Ishtar continued, attempting to control herself, “Why would you spare me? All you’re doing is bringing pain to everyone. I don’t even deserve this.”

“You do-”

“Maybe you and Tinny think that but no one else does!” she cut him off. “I followed a monster because I thought he was still the boy I loved! I convinced myself that he would eventually go back and by that I supported his despicable acts! Why would anyone think I was savable for that? I wasn’t able to save anyone! I tried but all it did was delay the inevitable!”

She continued on, giving no time for him to protest or even say anything, quickly falling into hysterics after finally breaking and letting everything out after years of bottling it in out of fear. “I stood by and watched while my mother tortured my aunt to death and did the same to my cousin! No matter what Tinny says I let it happen! The child hunts… I stood by and let you and Faval work to stop them, did nothing to put an end to them myself! I know Johalva and Johan put their foot down and didn’t let them into Isaac, so I don’t have the excuse of fear! I let it happen by my own inaction, regardless of what anyone says.

“The monster I thought was Julius… he won’t stop at anything to get me back. The encounter in Manster proved that. He’ll come for me and you will all be dead and I’ll have to live as his queen and watch the world fall to pieces and know that everyone is dead because of me because you spared me when I should have died!”

That was the final breaking point for her. She leaned forward, pressed her face into her knees, and finally just let herself cry for the first time in years, not caring who would see her anymore because her life was already over, wasn’t it?

After a few moments, she heard the door quietly shut. For a moment she thought Sety had left the room, but she felt more than heard him come closer to her. She felt the bed shift under his weight as he sat down before she felt a hesitant hand touch her shoulder. To her surprise, she actually leaned into it a bit and, after a moment fell onto her side on his lap. She felt him stiffen at the contact, not sure what to do, before relaxing slightly and slowly moving his hand though her hair.

Ishtar had no idea how long she was sobbing, but eventually her tears stopped, and all she felt was drained. Contrary to what people say, she didn’t feel better. She didn’t feel worse. All she felt was drained, like she had nothing left.

“I met you because you specifically sought me out to ask me to help you save the children from the child hunts,” Sety finally spoke in a quiet voice. “You gave me information to help me with that, which could have easily gotten you executed if you were found out, regardless of your position. You sent the same information to Faval as well, and you tried convincing them to stop the child hunts which no one had any success in, the fact that you tried is enough. And I have no idea what exactly happened with your aunt, but the fact that Tinny has nothing but good things to say about you should say something.

“And about Ju- Loptyr, I doubt he has the time to worry about you at this point, and more than likely thinks you’re dead. I… uh… well, a few people thought you were for a minute there so that may have been what had been reported to him…. And if he does come after you, we’ll protect you. Before you say that’s impossible, I managed to blast him in Miletos to the point where he threw a tantrum and ran off. We’d figure out some way.”

Despite herself, she couldn’t help but almost smile at the memory of him basically sulking on the throne. Of course, after that he had ranted about how he would end Sety for disgracing him…

She forced those thoughts away. She would rather not deal with thoughts of what was to come next for the liberation army yet.

Ishtar pushed herself up, wiping at her eyes and turning away, the old familiar maxim of letting no one see your weaknesses returning to her, despite the fact that her actions had already made that irrelevant. “Sety… thank you for being here… but what kind of future do I even have? No matter who vouches for me I can’t rule Freege, and staying here isn’t an option.” For multiple reasons.

“You’ll think of something,” Sety said, rising from the bed. He hesitated for a moment, before turning back to her and taking something from his sack. “You’re worried about Loptyr, and I know you won’t use it against anyone and it’s not possible to use it on yourself, so… here.”

She gazed in shock at the tome he was handing her. “Mjölnir… are you sure?”

“Yes. Just try and not let anyone else see it, I’m technically not even supposed to have it, I only have it because no one took it away from me when I picked it up. Or noticed that I did to begin with.”

She slowly reached out and took it from him, cradling it in her arms and closing her eyes and feeling the familiar power radiate from it. She idly wondered why she hadn’t sensed it before now, theorizing that maybe he had put it behind the Holsety tome and it had blocked it.

He hesitated for another moment before saying, “I’m really not the best person to, but if you need to talk to anyone… just ask for me I guess. I’ll at least listen, which I guess is better than nothing.”

With that, he left the room before she could figure out something to say. To be fair, it would be a long time before she was able to.

After a few moments, she placed the tome underneath the pillow and laid back down. Even despite the tiredness that came from her tears earlier, sleep was a long time coming.

She feared it would be years before she was able to sleep anywhere close to easily.

**Author's Note:**

> I still think that Ishtar is kind of OOC, but this is the culmination of years of stress and emotional abuse. She's really not in a good state of mind. At all.
> 
> Tinny should be in the next chapter, if you guys are curious. Let's hope I can figure out how to write her decently...
> 
> Anyway, if you have any questions, you can find me on tumblr at http://priestessoftheemblem.tumblr.com/ or you can ask me in the comments. I'll be happy to answer them!


End file.
